Amid fears of a possible Ebola outbreak in Nigeria during the devastating epidemic that plagued West Africa in 2014, a WhatsApp broadcast made the rounds:
“Please ensure that you and your family and all your neighbors bathe with hot water and salt before daybreak today because of Ebola virus which is spreading through the air,“ it read.
Even though there was no medical basis for it, the “prescription” went viral enough for the government to officially debunk it. But that ultimately proved futile, as at least two people died and several others were hospitalized over excessive salt consumption.
The incident offered a snapshot of how misinformation spreads unchecked on social media platforms, especially WhatsApp. Crucially, older Nigerians served as key conduits for that WhatsApp broadcast as several recipients—even beyond Nigeria—say they got the broadcast from parents, grandparents, and older relatives. Given the potent mix of fear (the outbreak killed over 11,000 people across West Africa) and uncertain information about the virus and the disease, older Nigerians were particularly quick to spread the bogus prevention technique in a bid to “save” family and friends.
But that Ebola broadcast was not a one-off. With family WhatsApp groups so popular, a common complaint among younger Nigerians revolves around the barrage of forwarded messages which range from improbable to ludicrous that are shared by parents and grandparents.
But there’s an explanation for this. In some ways, WhatsApp is theinternet for older users.
Unlike other social platforms which require creating and managing online profiles as well fast-moving interactions older users may be unable to keep up with, WhatsApp condenses the experience of having personal and group conversations, sharing photos and videos, receiving and sharing news into a one-stop shop platform that mirrors regular text messaging in its ease of use. “WhatsApp is the closest to SMS, which is the simplest of the lot. I don’t have to try remembering your handle or go to a platform to message you. That is appealing for everyone, not just the 60-plus age group,” says Gbenga Sesan, founder of Paradigm Initiative, a digital rights-focused social enterprise.
WhatsApp can also be thought of as a “walled garden” for a generation that’s too old to keep up with the vastness, complexity, and fast-moving pace of the wider internet. As such, just as WhatsApp is both an entry point for social media and internet use, it can also a bubble.
Part of the problem lies in how WhatsApp is structured and how it works as its biggest strength—end-to-end encryption on messages—is also its key weakness. The platform has admitted to struggling with finding ways to detect and manage the flow and impact of misinformation. WhatsApp’s potential as a tool for misinformation is further amplified by its sheer popularity: it’s the most popularmessaging app across several African countries, including Nigeria. Local telecoms operators have also created WhatsApp-only data bundles for users.
New tech, old ways
Despite the modernity of WhatsApp and the technology that powers it, the driving force of the spread of misinformation, especially among older users, is linked to an old concept: social trust.
In a recent report by the Center for Democracy and Development and the University of Birmingham on WhatsApp’s role during Nigeria’s February elections, some respondents cited parents and grandparents as the “biggest sharers” of misinformation. “It was something we heard quite a lot,” says Jamie Hitchen, one of the report’s authors. “While younger people have more critical thinking with sharing when it comes to digital platforms, older people were reported to be far more willing.” The report attributes that tendency to share as being down to a lack of digital literacy and a reliance on trusted social networks.
“It’s the same way wealth is created among trusting friends: you get, you share,” Sesan says. “At 60, you’ve probably grown to get information in a world where trust existed, where verification and media were synonymous. Unfortunately, digital tools don’t follow old school traditional verification and trust ethos.”
For his part, Olurotimi Alade, a 60-year old university teacher and father of three, says his trust in “the integrity” of the sender of information “plays a huge role” in his decision to forward messages. And while he tries to fact-check information before forwarding as much as possible, he says “some alarming information appear to be of such immediate concern that forwarding them without probably verifying would most likely to be the prudent thing to do.”
For parents and older relatives, those sort of messages revolve around the safety of loved ones, however improbable the information appears to be. Sherifat, a 54-year old retired bank director, who also forwarded the salt-water Ebola cure to her daughter eight years ago, says she did so out of fear. “Even if I didn’t believe it, it was better to be careful,” she says.
In search of solutions
WhatsApp understands the scale of its fake news problem. Earlier this year, it pegged its message forwarding limit to five people to “help keep WhatsApp focused on private messaging” with close contacts. “The change has reduced messaging behavior by around 25% globally,” a WhatsApp spokesperson told Quartz.
But with its groups feature largely unaffected, the flow of misinformation remains prominent: “one random person can share into a trusted network and that gets shared on,” Sesan says. CDD’s report also noted that 73% of respondents said the average size of the groups they were in was 50 or more people. WhatsApp groups can hold up to 256 members.
As added measures, WhatsApp now labels forwarded messages and has also recently introduced a “frequently forwarded” label to alert users when they received messages that “were previously forwarded several times.” It is also introducing more controls for group admins to allow them determine members that can send messages.
WhatsApp has also relied on mass media to solve its fake news problem. “In the run-up to the Nigeria national election, WhatsApp made significant product changes to limit the spread of viral content, banned accounts engaging in automated or bulk messaging, and sponsored a broad education campaign on broadcast platforms in Nigeria including on the radio, print, and online,” the WhatsApp spokesperson says.
Some solutions have also come from third-party groups. During Nigeria’s general elections, a coalition of journalists set up a WhatsApp business channel for crowd-sourcing questionable claimsfrom the public which were then fact-checked with users encouraged to spread accurate fact-checked reports just as widely as the initial claims.
But none of these solutions focus primarily on older users.
One possible fix could come in the form of younger members of family groups on WhatsApp challenging and correcting their parents when questionable claims are shared. That’s unlikely though, given Nigeria’s conservative family culture, which often places obeisance above perceived dissent. Yet those who are brave enough to try are hardly guaranteed success either: Akinlabi, a 24-year old Lagos-based filmmaker, still gets broadcasts with questionable claims from mum despite several conversations about mindless forwarding.
And so the big question: is it too late to improve the levels of awareness of fake news among older users of WhatsApp in Nigeria?
Sesan says “the short answer is yes.” And Hitchen largely agrees: “It’s difficult to think of a short term solution to solve the problem. It’s got to be long term thinking on how to improve digital literacy but it will be more difficult among older people with less understanding of these things work.”
By Yomi Kazeem
Quartz
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
The remarkable story of British Nigerian football start Ola Aina
In doing so, he completed a remarkable personal journey.
Born in Southwark, South London to Nigerian parents, Ola has risen to the ranks of professional football - playing for Chelsea, Torino and the Nigerian national team, despite growing up with few privileges.
His journey began when he competed in a tournament in Bognor Regis on the English coast with his youth side. He was voted "most valuable player" among over 600 others, spotted by scouts and attracted attention from 15 clubs, including Premier League sides Tottenham and Chelsea - he later went on to play for the "Blues" as an under-11.
His father Olufemi Aina, a central figure in Ola's story, always believed his son had the making of a gifted athlete. Ola as a child, Olufemi told Al Jazeera, was so physically impressive that he carried his birth certificate around to prove he was the right age.
"He was meant to sign for Tottenham," his father said. "They had him over for about three weeks, then on the day he was supposed to sign, they kept acting funny. As a big Spurs fan, it was heartbreaking. Luckily, Chelsea officials were still calling us daily, so we decided, 'Why not go where you are wanted?'"
But the celebrations were short-lived, as the family desperately rallied around to try and make Ola's dream possible.
His parents often worked several jobs. At one time, his mother Esther had four just to put food on the table for her four sons - Michael, Ola - the second born, Jordan and Benjamin.
When Ola started playing with Chelsea, they would pick him up in their shabby car from training after their work shifts, getting back home just before midnight.
Ola would be up for school again the next morning.
The situation got worse when Olufemi, unable to hold onto jobs because of his commitments to his son's training, lost their house.
"A bleak time for the whole family, and for me," said Ola. "That was a life lesson."
Although Esther is, in Ola's words, his "number one fan", she needed a bit more convincing every now and then.
As a young player, the budding footballer spent four days trying to persuade her to move the family from Essex to Surrey, to be closer to Chelsea. She eventually gave in.
But that was the least of it. About six years ago, his father was driving him to Chelsea when the car broke down.
"The car just stopped in the middle of Vauxhall (in central London), and we were just stranded.
"He sold the car on the spot and then he put me on the train. He came on the train with me because I hadn't really used trains like that before, so it wasn't really too familiar.
"He came with me all the way to Chelsea training ground, made sure I got into my changing room, and then went all the way back home again … All those sacrifices they [made] is fuel for me to strive and to do well and repay them in ways that they can't imagine."
Remembering that day, Olufemi said: "It was not always smooth sailing, but you need to give the child support. In football, some will not make it, but the child deserves a chance."
One of the ways Ola has "repaid" his parents is by taking Esther to a dealership and buying her a brand new car, which prompted her to fast for three days to thank God.
"My heart was full with thanks to God. I never thought that in my lifetime that my child would get me a car," she told Al Jazeera.
In August 2016, Ola made his senior professional debut for Chelsea in the League Cup. Over the course of that season, he made a handful of appearances.
But the next season was spent out on loan to Hull City in the English Championship.
When he returned to London in 2018, there was interest from Torino.
"This was an opportunity to be in a top league, and to get some good experience," he said.
The Italian team made his loan deal permanent earlier this year.
Playing for Nigeria
In 2017, Ola chose to represent the Nigeria national football team, also known as the Super Eagles, at the international level, despite having played for England in the youth ranks.
At the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, his spectacular back-heeled assist against Burundi was among the many moments celebrated by fans and countrymen.
His performance in North Africa earned him rave reviews in the local press and also impressed the notoriously judgemental Super Eagles fans on social media.
Thousands of miles away, he was being cheered in Nigeria.
"It was all over the news, [Ola] gave our folks something to be proud of back home," said his uncle Abayomi Aina.
"I was overjoyed and the fact that it's my nephew, the name Aina being mentioned by commentators.
"In a country of about 200 million people, his name was on the lips of millions from Lagos to Ijebu Ikenne (the family's ancestral hometown) and it was indeed a proud moment for us."
In Nigeria, the chances of a footballer ascending to the highest levels of the sport are slim.
"Nigeria is a conveyor belt of talent, with its sheer weight of numbers allied to the popularity of football," said Lagos-based sports journalist Solace Chukwu.
"However, there are simply no structures in place to develop and harness all that talent: among many other issues, there is a massive infrastructure deficit as a result of a non-existent sports policy, and the nation's football administration lacks the vision and integrity to get around that deficit.
"In those circumstances, real success stories are fewer than they should be, and are often a result of sheer determination and perseverance."
Reflecting on his performance in Egypt, Ola said: "It was completing a circle in my life having played for England at youth level. To then play for Nigeria at a major tournament - the buzz after that assist was amazing.
"To play five matches in seven at that tournament and to win a third-place medal is the stuff of dreams."
By Oluwashina Okeleji
Al Jazeera
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Video - Nigeria's Lost Generation Pt. 2
In Part two of this documentary the story of courage and persistence continues. Fatima Adam, one of the chibok girls abductees soldiers on past the trauma she under went at the hands of the boko haram. Bukky Shonibare fights on to have the rest of the chibok girls released. A story of courage and resilience.
Related story: Video - Nigeria's lost Generation
Black skinhead film directed by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje hopes to "heal" pain
Farming, the film’s title, takes its name from a term used to describe the practice of Nigerian immigrants fostering their children to white families in Britain so they could work, study and save money. It refers to the idea that the children were “farmed” out.
The aim of the practise, mainly prevalent from the 1960s to 1980s, was for the immigrants to eventually return to Nigeria.
“Perhaps this can provide a healing in some sense but ultimately a re-evaluation of our child-rearing processes,” Akinnuoye-Agbaje told Reuters at the film’s Nigerian premiere on Saturday in the country’s commercial capital, Lagos, after first being screened in London last month.
“I’m hoping that it will create a dialogue and a collective therapy for those that are still suffering, and a healing because many of the Nigerian farmers don’t actually go back for the children that were fostered,” he said.
As a six-week-old baby in 1967, Akinnuoye-Agbaje was left in the care of a white family in Tilbury, a southeast England town around 20 miles east of central London. And, as a youth, he joined a gang of skinheads - a far-right subculture often associated with racist violence in Britain.
Membership in a gang that previously tormented him ended when his biological father, who had relocated to Nigeria where he worked as a barrister, paid for him to attend a private school in the affluent English county of Surrey.
That step was taken after he was contacted by Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s foster mother.
“It is an important part of British history as well as Nigerian culture, so to be able to bring a story that I have harboured for so long home to the Nigerian audience is... a wonderful sense of accomplishment,” said Akinnuoye-Agbaje.
The film - which cost 3 million pounds ($3.89 million) to make and stars British actor Kate Beckinsale as the foster mother - was greeted with cheers and applause in a packed cinema hall in the upmarket Lagos district of Lekki.
Thousands of Nigerians leave the west African country each year in search of a better life abroad - often in Europe and the United States. Some of those who attended the screening said it was interesting to see a depiction of life overseas that differed from their expectations.
“When it comes to racism... we normally focus on America but it was nice to see what actually happened in the UK (United Kingdom),” said broadcaster Simi Drey.
Similarly, a cinematographer who goes by the name T-Cent said he was surprised by the portrayal of people typically seen as having benefited from life in a nation richer than Nigeria, where most people live on less than $2 a day.
“We look at these people and we say they are very, very privileged, but then everyone has their
internal struggles,” he said.
By Nneka Chile
Reuters
Nigeria on the brink of finally ending fuel imports
Africa’s biggest oil producer is trying to get its refineries working in an attempt to wean itself off imported fuel. Yet again.
Over the past 12 years, Nigeria tried and failed four times to crank up its ageing and unprofitable crude-processing plants. Now the state-run energy company is giving it another shot — a move that, if successful, could end the nation’s reliance on fuel imports. However, the country’s recent track record means there is scepticism about the latest effort.
“For our refineries that have not been properly maintained for years, it might be easier to build a new one,” said Cheta Nwanze, head of research at SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based risk advisory.
The West African country of 200-million people imports more than 90% of products such as petrol and diesel, swapping its prized export — crude — for petroleum products that people need.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) operates four refineries that have long run at a fraction of their capacity. The newest is almost four decades old. By successfully making its own fuels, Nigeria would stop being reliant on traders bringing supplies on tankers from thousands of miles away, with all the extra costs that entails.
Truly committed
Mele Kyari, the newly appointed group MD of NNPC, says this time will be different.
He has made fixing the plants a main part of his agenda since taking the helm of the company in July, and says President Muhammadu Buhari is the country’s first leader in years to be committed to the revamp. Kyari has revived a target to upgrade the plants and end fuel imports by 2023, after the company missed a previous goal for the end of 2019.
Timipre Sylva, the minister of state for petroleum resources, said the overhaul should be successful this time because Nigeria is asking the owners of the refinery technology to get more involved in the work. Once the plants are operational, they will be run by external people, which will also help, he said.
The work is scheduled to begin in January, first on the Port Harcourt complex, a two-refinery facility with the capacity to process 210,000 barrels of crude a day. Repairs will then move to the smaller refineries.
Dangote boost
Some of Nigeria’s challenges to become more self-sufficient in fuel may soon be alleviated for another reason. In the next few years, a new, privately owned 650,000 barrel-a-day refinery is due to come online. In theory, it could meet all of the country’s fuel needs and have enough left over for exports.
The plant, being built by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, is not owned by the Nigerian state. That means that the country would have to pay market prices — similar to those charged by traders — for the fuel the refinery churns out. There would be little reason for Dangote to subsidise Nigeria’s domestic fuel prices if it were more profitable for the refinery to sell elsewhere.
The scepticism that state-run plants can return to full operation stems from NNPC’s previous attempts. Efforts to overhaul its refining industry — in 2007, 2010, 2012 and 2016 — all failed to work out. The state energy company has to compete with other domestic demands for funding, such as health care, education and other social services.
Three years ago, Nigeria sought external financing for its refineries after a plunge in crude prices, oil theft and attacks on its pipelines by militants and other saboteurs. That effort crumbled after it failed to convince investors of the viability of the venture.
NNPC is talking to the African Export-Import Bank and other financial institutions to fund the revamp.
“The money to comprehensively fix the refineries is simply not there,” said Ayodele Oni, chair of the energy and natural resources practice at Bloomfield Law in Lagos. “It is a difficult task to attract any significant funding required for their repairs in their present state.”
Business Day
Related stories: Africa's largest oil refinery delayed until 2020
Dangote Refinery has World's largest atmospheric tower built by China for Nigeria
Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote is building the world's largest refinery in Nigeria
Over the past 12 years, Nigeria tried and failed four times to crank up its ageing and unprofitable crude-processing plants. Now the state-run energy company is giving it another shot — a move that, if successful, could end the nation’s reliance on fuel imports. However, the country’s recent track record means there is scepticism about the latest effort.
“For our refineries that have not been properly maintained for years, it might be easier to build a new one,” said Cheta Nwanze, head of research at SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based risk advisory.
The West African country of 200-million people imports more than 90% of products such as petrol and diesel, swapping its prized export — crude — for petroleum products that people need.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) operates four refineries that have long run at a fraction of their capacity. The newest is almost four decades old. By successfully making its own fuels, Nigeria would stop being reliant on traders bringing supplies on tankers from thousands of miles away, with all the extra costs that entails.
Truly committed
Mele Kyari, the newly appointed group MD of NNPC, says this time will be different.
He has made fixing the plants a main part of his agenda since taking the helm of the company in July, and says President Muhammadu Buhari is the country’s first leader in years to be committed to the revamp. Kyari has revived a target to upgrade the plants and end fuel imports by 2023, after the company missed a previous goal for the end of 2019.
Timipre Sylva, the minister of state for petroleum resources, said the overhaul should be successful this time because Nigeria is asking the owners of the refinery technology to get more involved in the work. Once the plants are operational, they will be run by external people, which will also help, he said.
The work is scheduled to begin in January, first on the Port Harcourt complex, a two-refinery facility with the capacity to process 210,000 barrels of crude a day. Repairs will then move to the smaller refineries.
Dangote boost
Some of Nigeria’s challenges to become more self-sufficient in fuel may soon be alleviated for another reason. In the next few years, a new, privately owned 650,000 barrel-a-day refinery is due to come online. In theory, it could meet all of the country’s fuel needs and have enough left over for exports.
The plant, being built by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, is not owned by the Nigerian state. That means that the country would have to pay market prices — similar to those charged by traders — for the fuel the refinery churns out. There would be little reason for Dangote to subsidise Nigeria’s domestic fuel prices if it were more profitable for the refinery to sell elsewhere.
The scepticism that state-run plants can return to full operation stems from NNPC’s previous attempts. Efforts to overhaul its refining industry — in 2007, 2010, 2012 and 2016 — all failed to work out. The state energy company has to compete with other domestic demands for funding, such as health care, education and other social services.
Three years ago, Nigeria sought external financing for its refineries after a plunge in crude prices, oil theft and attacks on its pipelines by militants and other saboteurs. That effort crumbled after it failed to convince investors of the viability of the venture.
NNPC is talking to the African Export-Import Bank and other financial institutions to fund the revamp.
“The money to comprehensively fix the refineries is simply not there,” said Ayodele Oni, chair of the energy and natural resources practice at Bloomfield Law in Lagos. “It is a difficult task to attract any significant funding required for their repairs in their present state.”
Business Day
Related stories: Africa's largest oil refinery delayed until 2020
Dangote Refinery has World's largest atmospheric tower built by China for Nigeria
Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote is building the world's largest refinery in Nigeria
Smuggling booms despite Nigeria border closure
Francis Sardauna in Katsina and Eromosele Abiodun in Lagos
Despite the closure of Nigerian land borders by the federal government in the last three months, smuggling still persists at the border between Nigeria and Niger Republic, THISDAY’s investigation has revealed.
THISDAY gathered that at the border between Jibia in Katsina State and Niger Republic, smugglers have resorted to the use of illegal routes to ferry in bags of foreign rice, bales of second-hand clothing and other contrabands.
However, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has dismissed the observation, calling for either a photograph or video evidence to prove the allegation. NCS also said it would be impossible for smugglers to operate at any of the country’s borders.
Investigation revealed that while strict compliance appears to reign at the main border post between the two countries, illegal businesses still thrived at some bush paths and sundry illegal entry points where unscrupulous security operatives, work hand-in-glove with smugglers to smuggle contraband goods into the country.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on August 20, 2019 ordered a joint border security aimed at securing the country’s land and maritime borders.
But when THISDAY visited the border town of Jibia at the weekend, it was observed that there were some illegal routes that commercial drivers and motorcyclists were using to transport goods and passengers into the country.
It was gathered that rice smugglers were also taking advantage of the lax security to bring their wares into the country but at much higher price than before.
Some of the illegal routes the smugglers used to ferry in the contrabands from Niger Republic to Jibia Local Government Area of Katsina State include Sabon Gari, Dan-Harau, Alele, Makada and Maidabaro roads despite heavy security at the borders.
The smugglers, it was learnt, go through the laborious route of offloading the contrabands few meters away from the official border security post and use J-5 buses, Gulf 4 and 5 vehicles and motorcycles to ferry the items from their hideouts into Jibia for onward transportation to their warehouses in Katsina, Kano, Kaduna, Zamfara, Jigawa States and some other parts of the country.
Residents of the border town told THISDAY that the smugglers were being aided by security personnel, including soldiers, policemen, Customs and immigration officials, who allegedly collected money from the smugglers to allow them a free passage at the 13 checkpoints between Jibia and Katsina metropolis.
A motorcyclist involved in smuggling, who pleaded anonymity, told THISDAY that those of them engaged in the business understood the risks and dangers involved but affirmed that they would not encounter any problem unless they refused to cooperate with security operatives at the checkpoints.
“Unless one refused to pay the bribe for each category of items or when it is time for the officials to sacrifice you to prove that they are working – that is when they will arrest you in the name of smuggling,” he explained.
A commercial driver simply identified as Sule, who specialised in smuggling, said business had been booming for them because they do convey a bag of rice from Maradi (Niger Republic) to Katsina at the cost of N3,000 each.
“We used to charge rice merchants N3,000 for each bag of rice carried from Maradi to Katsina State. Although, we do follow bush paths and sometimes custom officers do arrest us. But once we give them some monies they allow us to pass even though some of them are very stubborn,” he stated.
He, however, lamented that the border closure has contributed negatively to the socio-economic imbalance of the state and the country in general.
When contacted, the NCS Commander in charge of Sector 4 Command of the National Border Drill Operation, Bashir Abubakar, said about 50 suspected smugglers had so far been apprehended and 14 trucks of contrabands intercepted.
He lamented that Jibia border has always been one of their major flashpoints since the commencement of the operation two months ago because of the “mental behaviour” of the inhabitants of the area.
“We have seen that people of that area are not in good terms with government security agencies and it has been a history,” he added.
On the allegation that his officers were extorting money from smugglers, Abubakar said: “I will not say yes, it is true but at the same time I will not deny because we are all human beings and there is no Nigerian that changes name in terms of issues of integrity and character.
“Think of anywhere in the world, there are bag eggs and good eggs. The same thing applies to various agencies in Nigeria – both government and private agencies but anyone found wanting will be punished.”
He added that lack of adequate operational vehicles and banditry has affected their ability to carry out the operation in all the villages in the state.
The Sector 4 Command of the National Border Drill Operation covers Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States.
Officers on the joint exercise were drawn from the Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Army, Nigeria Immigration Service, DSS and Nigerian Air Force.
We Need Video Evidence, Says Customs
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Nigeria Customs Service, Joseph Attah said it would be impossible for smugglers to move around easily in any Nigerian border because of the security presence at the borders.
He said officers manning the borders were drawn from security services, which include the police, air force, army, Customs and the Department of State Services (DSS).
“This information is important to me. If you have evidence kindly make it available so I can challenge the Sector 4 Commander. This is something that nationwide, whoever gives that information should give us photographs or video evidence.
“The NCS is very interested in this information. What I can tell you is that this joint border exercise is coordinated by the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) and there are joint forces, not only Customs officers and they are in all the borders, divided into four sectors. If I have an evidence to back up this information, I will quickly take it up with the Sector Commander and report the matter to the Office of the National Security Adviser.
“This is not Customs alone; the police are there, air force and the army are there; so, if somebody goes to Jibia and is saying that is what is happening in Idi-Iroko is not happening at Jibia, then, I will be interested. This is not Customs affair; it is all security agencies that are there. Your reporter should tell me where he is there so I can connect him with the people on ground to help.
When asked if there is possibility smuggling is still going on in Jibia, he said, “I can tell you that whatever you see happening in Seme, Idi-Iroko and other land borders around the country is what is happening in Jibia, Umfun, Cross Rivers, and Migatiri in Sokoto State.”
This Day
Despite the closure of Nigerian land borders by the federal government in the last three months, smuggling still persists at the border between Nigeria and Niger Republic, THISDAY’s investigation has revealed.
THISDAY gathered that at the border between Jibia in Katsina State and Niger Republic, smugglers have resorted to the use of illegal routes to ferry in bags of foreign rice, bales of second-hand clothing and other contrabands.
However, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has dismissed the observation, calling for either a photograph or video evidence to prove the allegation. NCS also said it would be impossible for smugglers to operate at any of the country’s borders.
Investigation revealed that while strict compliance appears to reign at the main border post between the two countries, illegal businesses still thrived at some bush paths and sundry illegal entry points where unscrupulous security operatives, work hand-in-glove with smugglers to smuggle contraband goods into the country.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on August 20, 2019 ordered a joint border security aimed at securing the country’s land and maritime borders.
But when THISDAY visited the border town of Jibia at the weekend, it was observed that there were some illegal routes that commercial drivers and motorcyclists were using to transport goods and passengers into the country.
It was gathered that rice smugglers were also taking advantage of the lax security to bring their wares into the country but at much higher price than before.
Some of the illegal routes the smugglers used to ferry in the contrabands from Niger Republic to Jibia Local Government Area of Katsina State include Sabon Gari, Dan-Harau, Alele, Makada and Maidabaro roads despite heavy security at the borders.
The smugglers, it was learnt, go through the laborious route of offloading the contrabands few meters away from the official border security post and use J-5 buses, Gulf 4 and 5 vehicles and motorcycles to ferry the items from their hideouts into Jibia for onward transportation to their warehouses in Katsina, Kano, Kaduna, Zamfara, Jigawa States and some other parts of the country.
Residents of the border town told THISDAY that the smugglers were being aided by security personnel, including soldiers, policemen, Customs and immigration officials, who allegedly collected money from the smugglers to allow them a free passage at the 13 checkpoints between Jibia and Katsina metropolis.
A motorcyclist involved in smuggling, who pleaded anonymity, told THISDAY that those of them engaged in the business understood the risks and dangers involved but affirmed that they would not encounter any problem unless they refused to cooperate with security operatives at the checkpoints.
“Unless one refused to pay the bribe for each category of items or when it is time for the officials to sacrifice you to prove that they are working – that is when they will arrest you in the name of smuggling,” he explained.
A commercial driver simply identified as Sule, who specialised in smuggling, said business had been booming for them because they do convey a bag of rice from Maradi (Niger Republic) to Katsina at the cost of N3,000 each.
“We used to charge rice merchants N3,000 for each bag of rice carried from Maradi to Katsina State. Although, we do follow bush paths and sometimes custom officers do arrest us. But once we give them some monies they allow us to pass even though some of them are very stubborn,” he stated.
He, however, lamented that the border closure has contributed negatively to the socio-economic imbalance of the state and the country in general.
When contacted, the NCS Commander in charge of Sector 4 Command of the National Border Drill Operation, Bashir Abubakar, said about 50 suspected smugglers had so far been apprehended and 14 trucks of contrabands intercepted.
He lamented that Jibia border has always been one of their major flashpoints since the commencement of the operation two months ago because of the “mental behaviour” of the inhabitants of the area.
“We have seen that people of that area are not in good terms with government security agencies and it has been a history,” he added.
On the allegation that his officers were extorting money from smugglers, Abubakar said: “I will not say yes, it is true but at the same time I will not deny because we are all human beings and there is no Nigerian that changes name in terms of issues of integrity and character.
“Think of anywhere in the world, there are bag eggs and good eggs. The same thing applies to various agencies in Nigeria – both government and private agencies but anyone found wanting will be punished.”
He added that lack of adequate operational vehicles and banditry has affected their ability to carry out the operation in all the villages in the state.
The Sector 4 Command of the National Border Drill Operation covers Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States.
Officers on the joint exercise were drawn from the Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Army, Nigeria Immigration Service, DSS and Nigerian Air Force.
We Need Video Evidence, Says Customs
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Nigeria Customs Service, Joseph Attah said it would be impossible for smugglers to move around easily in any Nigerian border because of the security presence at the borders.
He said officers manning the borders were drawn from security services, which include the police, air force, army, Customs and the Department of State Services (DSS).
“This information is important to me. If you have evidence kindly make it available so I can challenge the Sector 4 Commander. This is something that nationwide, whoever gives that information should give us photographs or video evidence.
“The NCS is very interested in this information. What I can tell you is that this joint border exercise is coordinated by the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) and there are joint forces, not only Customs officers and they are in all the borders, divided into four sectors. If I have an evidence to back up this information, I will quickly take it up with the Sector Commander and report the matter to the Office of the National Security Adviser.
“This is not Customs alone; the police are there, air force and the army are there; so, if somebody goes to Jibia and is saying that is what is happening in Idi-Iroko is not happening at Jibia, then, I will be interested. This is not Customs affair; it is all security agencies that are there. Your reporter should tell me where he is there so I can connect him with the people on ground to help.
When asked if there is possibility smuggling is still going on in Jibia, he said, “I can tell you that whatever you see happening in Seme, Idi-Iroko and other land borders around the country is what is happening in Jibia, Umfun, Cross Rivers, and Migatiri in Sokoto State.”
This Day
Monday, October 21, 2019
Video - Nigeria ranked as the poverty capital of the world
A new report shows that 94 million people live in extreme poverty, with the country ranked as the poverty capital of the world. The latest data comes from the World Poverty Clock which tracks poverty levels in real time. CGTN's Samson Omale tells us how Nigerians are reacting to the news and their falling standards of living.
Video - Experts in Nigeria urge government to keep the internet safe
According to a United Nations report, around one-in-three young people across 30 countries have been bullied online, while one-in-five have skipped school because of it. With a rapid growth of internet population in Nigeria, experts are now calling on the government to put measures in place to tackle the issue of cyber bullying.
Gunmen kidnap police officer in Nigeria
Nigerian police confirmed on Sunday the abduction of a senior police officer in the northern state of Kaduna on Saturday.
Musa Rambo, an assistant commissioner of police in charge of central north city of Suleja, was kidnapped on a highway road in the state by gunmen suspected to kidnappers, state police spokesman Yabuku Sabo told Xinhua.
Sabo did not reveal the detail of the kidnap, only saying contact had been established with the kidnappers requesting for a ransom which he failed to mentioned.
A security source told Xinhua that the kidnappers requested a ransom of 50 million naira (about 140,000 U.S. dollars) for the police officer to regain his freedom.
Xinhua
Musa Rambo, an assistant commissioner of police in charge of central north city of Suleja, was kidnapped on a highway road in the state by gunmen suspected to kidnappers, state police spokesman Yabuku Sabo told Xinhua.
Sabo did not reveal the detail of the kidnap, only saying contact had been established with the kidnappers requesting for a ransom which he failed to mentioned.
A security source told Xinhua that the kidnappers requested a ransom of 50 million naira (about 140,000 U.S. dollars) for the police officer to regain his freedom.
Xinhua
Nigeria shocked by Togo in CHAN qualifiers as holders Morocco go through
Nigeria were shock 2020 African Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifying casualties on Saturday despite a 2-0 home victory over Togo in the second leg of their regional tie.
Sikiru Alimi scored twice in Lagos for the Super Eagles B team, but it was not enough as Togo qualified for the finals 4-3 on aggregate.
It will be the first appearance by the Togolese in this national team competition, which is restricted to footballers who play in their country of birth.
Nigeria, runners-up to hosts Morocco in the 2018 final, had been seeking a fourth consecutive appearance at the biennial 16-nation championship.
Morocco, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia also qualified this weekend, leaving a further eight places to be filled on Sunday.
Cameroon qualify automatically as 2020 hosts, but the tournament dates and venues have not been announced.
Needing to score at least three goals after a shock 4-1 first leg loss in Lome last month, Nigeria made a promising start with Alimi netting on eight minutes.
He could have had a hat-trick by half-time, but failed to score when one-on-one with goalkeeper Mubarak Aigba while another shot was cleared off the line.
Alimi did score again 19 minutes from time, but Nigeria failed to find a third unanswered goal that would have given them victory on away goals.
Morocco served notice that they will be strong contenders to become the first nation to successfully defend the title when they beat Algeria 3-0.
After a goal-less first leg, the holders broke the deadlock on 27 minutes when Badr Benoun converted a penalty and Hamid Ahadad and Mohamed Nahiri also netted before half-time.
Benoun captained the 2018 Nations Championship-winning team that included Nahiri, who scores remarkably regularly for a full-back at club and national team levels.
None of the Algeria 2019 Africa Cup of Nations-winning squad were available as all 23 play abroad.
The qualification of Tanzania for the first time since the inaugural tournament hosted by the Ivory Coast in 2009 was a surprise given they fell 1-0 at home to Sudan in the first leg.
Sudan doubled the advantage through Amir Kamal in Omdurman before second half goals from Erasto Nyoni and Ditram Nchimbi earned Tanzania a 2-1 win and overall success on away goals.
Uganda defeated Burundi 3-0 in Kampala to go through 6-0 on aggregate and Rwanda narrowly got past Ethiopia 2-1 overall to qualify after a 1-1 draw in Kigali.
In the southern zone, eSwatini held Zambia to a 2-2 drawn in Lusaka but it was not enough as Zambia won 3-2 on aggregate.
In Windhoek Namibia were 2-0 winners over Madagascar to qualify 2-1 overall.
BBC
Sikiru Alimi scored twice in Lagos for the Super Eagles B team, but it was not enough as Togo qualified for the finals 4-3 on aggregate.
It will be the first appearance by the Togolese in this national team competition, which is restricted to footballers who play in their country of birth.
Nigeria, runners-up to hosts Morocco in the 2018 final, had been seeking a fourth consecutive appearance at the biennial 16-nation championship.
Morocco, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia also qualified this weekend, leaving a further eight places to be filled on Sunday.
Cameroon qualify automatically as 2020 hosts, but the tournament dates and venues have not been announced.
Needing to score at least three goals after a shock 4-1 first leg loss in Lome last month, Nigeria made a promising start with Alimi netting on eight minutes.
He could have had a hat-trick by half-time, but failed to score when one-on-one with goalkeeper Mubarak Aigba while another shot was cleared off the line.
Alimi did score again 19 minutes from time, but Nigeria failed to find a third unanswered goal that would have given them victory on away goals.
Morocco served notice that they will be strong contenders to become the first nation to successfully defend the title when they beat Algeria 3-0.
After a goal-less first leg, the holders broke the deadlock on 27 minutes when Badr Benoun converted a penalty and Hamid Ahadad and Mohamed Nahiri also netted before half-time.
Benoun captained the 2018 Nations Championship-winning team that included Nahiri, who scores remarkably regularly for a full-back at club and national team levels.
None of the Algeria 2019 Africa Cup of Nations-winning squad were available as all 23 play abroad.
The qualification of Tanzania for the first time since the inaugural tournament hosted by the Ivory Coast in 2009 was a surprise given they fell 1-0 at home to Sudan in the first leg.
Sudan doubled the advantage through Amir Kamal in Omdurman before second half goals from Erasto Nyoni and Ditram Nchimbi earned Tanzania a 2-1 win and overall success on away goals.
Uganda defeated Burundi 3-0 in Kampala to go through 6-0 on aggregate and Rwanda narrowly got past Ethiopia 2-1 overall to qualify after a 1-1 draw in Kigali.
In the southern zone, eSwatini held Zambia to a 2-2 drawn in Lusaka but it was not enough as Zambia won 3-2 on aggregate.
In Windhoek Namibia were 2-0 winners over Madagascar to qualify 2-1 overall.
BBC
Friday, October 18, 2019
Fuel tanker explosion kills 2 in Nigeria
Nigerian presidency confirmed on Thursday two people were killed in a fuel tanker explosion which wreaked havoc in the southern state of Anambra on Wednesday.
A woman and her child were confirmed killed as the tanker fell and spilled its content on a busy road in Onitsha, a commercial city of Anambra, according to a statement from the presidency.
"I am profoundly touched by the sight of the charred remains of an innocent mother and her child who are victims of this tragedy," Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said in the statement issued in Abuja.
"I also extend my sympathies to other victims of the explosion whose houses, shops and other property were destroyed in the mishap," he said.
Over 40 buildings and scores of shops were lost to the fire, according to local media.
Buhari called for urgent action on the part of those concerned to stem these frequent fatal disasters on public roads.
The president directed relevant government ministries and departments, as well as local stakeholders, to urgently address the issue of safety standards in the country, with a view to "stemming the embarrassing frequency of these tragedies".
Andrew Kumapayi, head of the state's Federal Road Safety Commission, told Xinhua the tanker lost control and fell into a gutter after experiencing break failure, spilling its content and causing fire.
Kumapayi said the fire service officials got to the scene promptly but could not put out the fire as their water pump developed fault.
Acording to him, the fire spread through the gutter and affected houses and shops along the road.
In July, a similar explosion in the central Nigerian state of Benue had claimed at least 45 lives.
Xinhua
A woman and her child were confirmed killed as the tanker fell and spilled its content on a busy road in Onitsha, a commercial city of Anambra, according to a statement from the presidency.
"I am profoundly touched by the sight of the charred remains of an innocent mother and her child who are victims of this tragedy," Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said in the statement issued in Abuja.
"I also extend my sympathies to other victims of the explosion whose houses, shops and other property were destroyed in the mishap," he said.
Over 40 buildings and scores of shops were lost to the fire, according to local media.
Buhari called for urgent action on the part of those concerned to stem these frequent fatal disasters on public roads.
The president directed relevant government ministries and departments, as well as local stakeholders, to urgently address the issue of safety standards in the country, with a view to "stemming the embarrassing frequency of these tragedies".
Andrew Kumapayi, head of the state's Federal Road Safety Commission, told Xinhua the tanker lost control and fell into a gutter after experiencing break failure, spilling its content and causing fire.
Kumapayi said the fire service officials got to the scene promptly but could not put out the fire as their water pump developed fault.
Acording to him, the fire spread through the gutter and affected houses and shops along the road.
In July, a similar explosion in the central Nigerian state of Benue had claimed at least 45 lives.
Xinhua
Town in Nigeria celebrate being 'twins capital' of the world
The sleepy-looking town boasts of having the highest concentration of multiple births of any place on the globe.
To celebrate its self-proclaimed title the town hosts an annual festival, now in its second year, that draws hundreds of sets of twins from around the country.
Donning different traditional clothes and costumes, the twins -- male and female, old, young and even newborns -- sang and danced at the latest edition this weekend to the appreciation of an admiring audience.
"We feel elated that we are being honoured today," Kehinde Durowoju, a 40-year-old twin, told AFP as he hugged his identical brother Taiwo.
"With this event, the whole world will better appreciate the importance of Ibeji (twins) as special children and gifts from God."
Around them, twins moved in procession to show off their colourful outfits as magic displays and masquerades also entertained the crowds.
- 'Twins tourism' -
Population experts say the Yoruba-speaking southwest has one of the highest twinning rates in Nigeria.
Statistics are difficult to come by, but a study by British gynaecologist Patrick Nylander, between 1972 and 1982, recorded an average of 45 to 50 sets of twins per 1,000 live births in the region.
That compares to a twin birth rate of 33 per every 1,000 births in the United States, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
Igbo-Ora is the epicentre of the phenomenon in the West African country.
Residents in the town, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Nigeria's biggest city Lagos, say that almost every family has some twins.
Traditional leader Jimoh Olajide Titiloye knows all about this special quirk.
"I am a twin, my wife is a twin and I have twins as children," he told AFP.
"There is hardly any household in this town which does not have at least a set of twins."
He said the festival on Saturday was aimed at promoting Igbo-Ora as "the foremost twins tourism destination in the world" and that efforts were underway to get the town listed in the Guinness Book of Records.
Prominent Yoruba ruler, the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, said the festival "is a celebration of culture and recognition of Ibeji as special children in Yorubaland".
He said the birth of twins usually "heralds peace, progress, prosperity and good luck to their parents," adding that parents should always take good care of them.
But while twins are seen as a blessing by many today, that has not always the case in parts of southern Nigeria.
In pre-colonial times twins were often regarded as evil and were either banished to the "evil forest" or killed.
Scottish missionary Mary Slessor is widely credited with helping to curb the practice in the late 19th century.
- Food or genes? -
Scientists have not said definitively why Igbo-Ora has such a high number of twins.
Local residents have a theory that it is down to the diet of women in the town.
"Our people eat okra leaf or Ilasa soup with yam and amala (cassava flour)," community leader Samuel Adewuyi Adeleye told AFP.
Yams are believed to contain gonadotropins, a chemical substance that helps women to produce multiple eggs.
"The water we drink also contributes to the phenomenon," Adeleye added.
Fertility experts are sceptical -- and point to another explanation.
They say there is no proven link between diet and the high birth rate, with the same food being consumed across the region.
"It's a genetic thing," said Emmanuel Akinyemi, the medical director of Lagos-based Estate Clinic.
AFP
Related stories: The town in Nigeria known for multiple twin births
Video - Advocacy group in Nigeria fights to end traditional practice of killing twins
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Nigerian painting sells for $1.4 million
The portrait, Christine, was by one of the most revered African artists of the 20th century, Ben Enwonwu. The captivating sitter was Christine Elizabeth Davis, an American hair stylist of West Indian descent. The painting was completed in under a week as Christine was able to hold her pose for as long as needed. Christine, who was in her mid-30s at the time, passed away in Texas thereafter. But the painting remained in the family.
Just three months ago it was valued by Sothebys at around $200,000, but on Tuesday the portrait sold in London for over seven times the estimated price at $1.4 million.
And it’s not the first remarkable story of a Ben Enwonwu find. His best known portrait, Tutu, is a depiction of Nigerian royal princess Adetutu Ademiluyi (Tutu), often dubbed the “Nigerian Mona Lisa.” Prints of Tutu adorned the walls of living rooms across Nigeria. The 2017 discovery of Tutu was equally fascinating. The long-lost painting was found in a modest London flat and the owners had no idea of its importance or value. It sold at a record $1.6 million in 2018. It was originally estimated at a quarter of that price.
Enwonwu, who died aged 77 in 1994, was a Nigerian artist whose career spanned 60 years seeing the journey of Nigeria from a British colony to an independent nation. His story is unique in that not only did he become famous in his own country, but also in the UK where he studied.
While African art only accounted for 0.1% of global sales in 2016, these recent interesting discoveries and the impressively high prices they are garnering at auctions is cause for optimism. They are also proof that the international market for African art is indeed growing.
By Ciku Kimeria
Quartz
Related stories: Britain open to loan Nigeria stolen art
The 'Mona Lisa' of Nigeria returns back home
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
President Buhari to crackdown on abusive Islamic schools
Nigeria's president on Tuesday ordered a crackdown on abuse at Islamic schools, after a second police raid in less than a month revealed men and boys subjected to beatings, abuse and squalid conditions.
Nearly 300 had been held captive at a school in the Daura area of Katsina, the home town of President Muhammadu Buhari, where police said they discovered "inhuman and degrading treatment" following a raid on Monday to free the remaining students.
Late last month, police freed hundreds from similarly degrading conditions in neighbouring Kaduna state.
"Mr President has directed the police to disband all such centres and all the inmates be handed over to their parents," said a presidential spokesman.
"The government cannot allow centres where people, male and female, are maltreated in the name of religion," he said.
Prior to this week's raid, hundreds of captives had escaped the centre, police said on Tuesday.
The 67 inmates who were freed by Katsina police were shackled, and many were taken to hospital for treatment, Police Superintendent Isah Gambo told Reuters.
"I tell you they were in very bad condition when we met them," Gambo said.
A freed captive told Reuters on Monday that the instructors beat, raped and even killed some of the men and boys held at the facility, who ranged from seven to 40 years of age. It was not immediately possible to verify his account.
While the institution told parents it was an Islamic teaching centre that would help straighten out wayward family members, the instructors instead brutally abused them and took away any food or money sent by relatives.
Police said they had arrested the owner of the facility and two teachers, and were tracking other suspects.
The more than 200 captives who escaped were still missing, Gambo said. Police were working to reunite the others with family members.
"The inmates are actually from different parts of the country - Kano, Taraba, Adamawa and Plateau States," he said.
"Some of them are not even Nigerians. They come from Niger, Chad and even Burkina Faso and other countries."
Islamic schools, called almajiris, are common in the mostly Muslim north of Nigeria.
Muslim Rights Concern, a local organisation, estimates about 10 million children attend them.
Buhari said the government planned to ban the schools eventually, but he has not yet commented on the Katsina school.
Al Jazeera
Related stories: Police in Nigeria rescue another 67 males from "inhuman' conditions
Hundreds freed from torture house in Nigeria
Survivor recounts torture house experience in Nigeria
Nearly 300 had been held captive at a school in the Daura area of Katsina, the home town of President Muhammadu Buhari, where police said they discovered "inhuman and degrading treatment" following a raid on Monday to free the remaining students.
Late last month, police freed hundreds from similarly degrading conditions in neighbouring Kaduna state.
"Mr President has directed the police to disband all such centres and all the inmates be handed over to their parents," said a presidential spokesman.
"The government cannot allow centres where people, male and female, are maltreated in the name of religion," he said.
Prior to this week's raid, hundreds of captives had escaped the centre, police said on Tuesday.
The 67 inmates who were freed by Katsina police were shackled, and many were taken to hospital for treatment, Police Superintendent Isah Gambo told Reuters.
"I tell you they were in very bad condition when we met them," Gambo said.
A freed captive told Reuters on Monday that the instructors beat, raped and even killed some of the men and boys held at the facility, who ranged from seven to 40 years of age. It was not immediately possible to verify his account.
While the institution told parents it was an Islamic teaching centre that would help straighten out wayward family members, the instructors instead brutally abused them and took away any food or money sent by relatives.
Police said they had arrested the owner of the facility and two teachers, and were tracking other suspects.
The more than 200 captives who escaped were still missing, Gambo said. Police were working to reunite the others with family members.
"The inmates are actually from different parts of the country - Kano, Taraba, Adamawa and Plateau States," he said.
"Some of them are not even Nigerians. They come from Niger, Chad and even Burkina Faso and other countries."
Islamic schools, called almajiris, are common in the mostly Muslim north of Nigeria.
Muslim Rights Concern, a local organisation, estimates about 10 million children attend them.
Buhari said the government planned to ban the schools eventually, but he has not yet commented on the Katsina school.
Al Jazeera
Related stories: Police in Nigeria rescue another 67 males from "inhuman' conditions
Hundreds freed from torture house in Nigeria
Survivor recounts torture house experience in Nigeria
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Video - Nigeria's lost Generation
In April 2014 close to 250 girls were abducted by the Boko Haram from a secondary school in Maiduguri, Borno State in north eastern Nigeria. Bukky Shonibare a "Bring our girls back home" campaigner shares her hopes on the Chibok girls rescue and return four years after their abduction. Fatima Adam, one of the Chibok abductees narrates how she survived a suicide bomb planted on her by the insurgents.
Police in Nigeria rescue another 67 males from "inhuman" conditions
Police in northern Nigeria rescued nearly 70 men and boys from a second purported Islamic school where they were shackled and subjected to "inhuman and degrading treatments."
The raid in Katsina, the northwestern home state of President Muhammadu Buhari, came less a month after about 300 men and boys were freed from another supposed Islamic school in neighbouring Kaduna state where they were allegedly tortured and sexually abused.
"In the course of investigation, sixty-seven persons from the ages of 7 to 40 years were found shackled with chains," Katsina police spokesman Sanusi Buba said in a statement. "Victims were also found to have been subjected to various inhuman and degrading treatments."
The raid occurred on October 12 in Sabon Garin in the Daura local government area of Katsina state. Police issued a statement on Monday and said they were working to reunite the victims with their families.
Police arrested one man, 78-year-old Mallam Bello Abdullahi Umar, for running what they called an "illegal detention/remand home."
Lawai Musa, a trader who lived near the centre, told Reuters by phone that families sent unruly men and boys there believing it was an Islamic teaching facility that would straighten them out and teach them Islamic beliefs.
"The way he is treating the children is un-Islamic" he said. "We are not happy, they were treated illegally."
Islamic schools, known as Almajiris, are common across the mostly Muslim north of Nigeria. Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), a local organisation, estimates about 10 million children attend them.
In June, President Buhari, himself a Muslim, said the government planned to ban the schools, but would not do so immediately. After the incident in Kaduna, the president issued a statement calling on traditional authorities to work with government to expose "unwanted cultural practices that amount to the abuse of children."
Buhari's office declined to immediately comment on the Katsina raid, saying it would issue a statement after a full briefing from police.
"The command enjoins parents to desist from taking their children/wards to illegal, unauthorized or unapproved remand/rehabilitation centres," the police statement said. (Reporting By Ahmed Kingimi, additional reporting by Felix Onuah in Abuja Writing by Libby George Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
Yahoo
Related stories: Hundreds freed from torture house in Nigeria
Survivor recounts torture house experience in Nigeria
The raid in Katsina, the northwestern home state of President Muhammadu Buhari, came less a month after about 300 men and boys were freed from another supposed Islamic school in neighbouring Kaduna state where they were allegedly tortured and sexually abused.
"In the course of investigation, sixty-seven persons from the ages of 7 to 40 years were found shackled with chains," Katsina police spokesman Sanusi Buba said in a statement. "Victims were also found to have been subjected to various inhuman and degrading treatments."
The raid occurred on October 12 in Sabon Garin in the Daura local government area of Katsina state. Police issued a statement on Monday and said they were working to reunite the victims with their families.
Police arrested one man, 78-year-old Mallam Bello Abdullahi Umar, for running what they called an "illegal detention/remand home."
Lawai Musa, a trader who lived near the centre, told Reuters by phone that families sent unruly men and boys there believing it was an Islamic teaching facility that would straighten them out and teach them Islamic beliefs.
"The way he is treating the children is un-Islamic" he said. "We are not happy, they were treated illegally."
Islamic schools, known as Almajiris, are common across the mostly Muslim north of Nigeria. Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), a local organisation, estimates about 10 million children attend them.
In June, President Buhari, himself a Muslim, said the government planned to ban the schools, but would not do so immediately. After the incident in Kaduna, the president issued a statement calling on traditional authorities to work with government to expose "unwanted cultural practices that amount to the abuse of children."
Buhari's office declined to immediately comment on the Katsina raid, saying it would issue a statement after a full briefing from police.
"The command enjoins parents to desist from taking their children/wards to illegal, unauthorized or unapproved remand/rehabilitation centres," the police statement said. (Reporting By Ahmed Kingimi, additional reporting by Felix Onuah in Abuja Writing by Libby George Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
Yahoo
Related stories: Hundreds freed from torture house in Nigeria
Survivor recounts torture house experience in Nigeria
Monday, October 14, 2019
Video - Nigerian shoe manufacturers compete to put industry on the map
If you are familiar with Nigeria, you may have heard of the city of Aba in Abia State, in the country's southeast. It one of Nigeria's industrial clusters and the biggest shoe market in the West African sub-region. But a new set of shoe manufacturers are competing to put another Southeast Nigerian State on the map.
Nigerian saved from football scam
A Nigerian footballer has arrived back home from Mongolia following an ordeal that saw him scammed by a shady agent who promised him a glittering sports career that never materialised.Moshood Afolabi, 24, arrived at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos on Saturday having left Ulaanbaatar, the Mongolia capital, a day earlier.
He had been trapped in Mongolia for 16 months and was overstaying a tourist visa, a situation which made it impossible to secure work, get his travel documents in order or afford a flight home.
"I'm very happy to have gained freedom leaving Mongolia," he told Al Jazeera. "I didn't believe I'd be in Nigeria on Saturday. I didn't believe it. Now, I'm experiencing so many things in Nigeria. Fresh air, fresh food. I'm really happy."
Al Jazeera reported on his plight in August and the challenges faced by many other aspiring African footballers who are stranded in several countries, having been duped by people posing as agents and tricking them into paying significant sums to travel and play for foreign clubs.
In Afolabi's case, a Nigerian man who lived close to his home spun him a tale, took his savings and sent him to play for local Mongolian club Western Khovd FC, but the job did not last beyond his tourist visa and he quickly fell into serious financial and personal problems.
Christopher Hannah, a Scottish businessman who had lived in Mongolia for six months, read and empathised with Afolabi's story and volunteered to help him.
"I had come across Moshood two weeks before I contacted him. I saw the article on Al Jazeera and at the time I was in Scotland," Hannah told Al Jazeera.
"I flew back to Mongolia and I saw it posted again on a forum and I remember someone was asking, 'Why doesn't someone help this guy?'"
Hannah, who was working on setting up a cashmere business in the East Asian country, had previous experience in the football industry and a passion for the sport.
He was previously an image rights agent for several European football clubs and footballers.
"Football is one of the best ways to break communication or culture barriers. This was the main reason Moshood and I could come together," he said.
After the Nigerian footballer spent a week in detention in late September at the Mongolian immigration service, Hannah booked and paid for Afolabi's $900 flight home, while Afolabi's friend Wael, an Egyptian immigrant, gave him the $750 he needed to pay to Mongolia for overstaying his visa.
"I felt sad because I hadn't experienced it in my life to be in a detention room for seven days," said Afolabi. "For the first three days in detention, I was drinking water, fasting and praying to Almighty Allah to save me."
Hannah claimed that his life in Mongolia took a turn for the worse after he helped Afolabi, saying he was treated with hostility by locals and was eventually denied a business visa extension.
He has now returned to his native Scotland and is in the process of opening a new football agency focusing on regions such as Africa.
Up to thousands of scammed African footballers
It is not clear exactly how many hopeful African players are stranded across the world but according to some estimates, the number is in the thousands.
In 2017, there was an influx of more than 100 African talents to Nepal, a south Asian country known least for football.
British media reported that an estimated 15,000 players are trafficked to Europe annually.
In Russia, there are dozens of cases.
Beverley Agbakoba Onyejianya, a Nigerian sports lawyer, said being deported can seriously impact a person's state of mind.
"Being deported may leave a footballer being stigmatised and even anxious about their future opportunities and ability to earn a good income," she said. "The player's career may or may not be affected depending on how they work to find new opportunities."
Back at home and reflecting on his journey, Afolabi says he will continue to play his beloved sport.
"Football is my passion," he said. "I want to use football to help my family and other people that do not have the means. I believe I'll make it in football and I want to continue."
By Tolu Olasoji
Al Jazeera
Friday, October 11, 2019
Video - Chinese app Vskit gaining huge traction in Nigeria
Chinese applications such as TikTok have been gaining massive traction across the African continent. Now joining the league is V-skit, an app used for the creation and sharing of short interesting funny videos. CGTN's Kelechi Emekalam explores how the entertainment platform is slowly becoming a fun-favorite amongst Nigerian youths.
Journalist Omoyele Sowore still remains in detention in Nigeria
The founder of African investigative digital media site Sahara Reporters Omoyele Sowore remains detained in Nigeria on charges including treason, his wife Opeyemi Sowore told TechCrunch.Her husband founded Sahara Reporters to create and aggregate news content, social media tips, and self-digital reporting toward exposing corruption in Africa and his home country of Nigeria.
After being jailed and beaten several times for his journalistic work in Nigeria, Sowore re-located to New York City and formed Sahara Reporters in Manhattan in 2006 to report under U.S. legal protections.
Several outlets, including Reuters, reported his arrest in August 2019. According to Opeyemi Sowore — who lives in New Jersey — her husband was detained in Lagos on August 4th while at a protest. He was then transferred to Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.
Per social media and press reporting, Omoyele Sowore (who goes by Sowore), was participating in #RevolutionNow movement of peaceful demonstration against bad governance in Nigeria.
After several hearings, he is still being held in Abuja, his wife said.
According to a copy of his court charging document obtained by TechCrunch, Sowore is charged with two counts of conspiring to stage a revolution and to remove Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, from office “otherwise than by constitutional means.”
Sowore is also charged with cybercrimes for “knowingly send[ing] messages by means of a press interview granted on Arise Television…for the purpose of causing insult…and ill-will on the…President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria” and for money laundering based on a transfer of $19,975 from a Nigerian bank account to a Sahara Reporters held account in New York.
Sowore pleaded not guilty to the charges and rejected an offer of bail for roughly $800,000, according to press reports and his wife.
As for the veracity of the charges, Sowore’s wife Opeyemi believes they are a cover to go after her husband for his activism and work with Sahara Reporters.
Sowore has never been an advocate of violence or insurrection, according to his wife.
“If you look at his history he is the most peaceful person. He does what he does so Nigeria can work for all Nigerians…be inclusive of all ethnic groups, all socio-economic backgrounds, and religions,” Opeyemi Sowore said.
“I think the charges are about silencing a critical voice that’s shining light on corruption,” she added.
Not everyone is a fan of Sowore and Sahara Reporters’ work, particularly in Nigeria. The country has has made strides in improving infrastructure and governance and has one of Africa’s strongest economies and tech scenes.
But Nigeria is still plagued by corruption, particularly around its oil-resources, and has a steady-stream of multi-billion dollar scandals — yes billions — in state related funds being stolen or simply going missing.
Sahara Reporters has made a practice of reporting on such corruption. The site, which has a tips line and small TV station, has exposed improprieties of many public officials and forced a number of resignations in Nigeria’s government.
In the previous administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, Sahara Reporters played a role in exposing the theft of an estimated $20 billion in public funds by Petroleum Minister, Diezani Allison-Madueke, who was forced to resign and eventually arrested.
The internet, mobile, and digital media play a central role in the work of Sahara Reporters. In an interview in 2014, Sowore explained to me how these mediums often do much of the investigative work.
“In many cases, there’s less investigation to breaking these stories than you’d think. The corruption and who’s perpetrating it is generally well-known and the evidence easy to distribute through social media and devices. We just need a safe place to report it from, and the rest often takes care of itself,” Sowore said.
Ironically, Sowre’s own thesis of using digital and social media for advocacy may be tested on his getting out of jail.
Sowore’s wife is working on a campaign of global supporters — including Amnesty International — to shine a light on her husband’s charges, innocence, and press for his release.
Away from the activism and politics, “I want Yele to come home safely. I’m worried about his safety and we have two small children and they miss their father dearly,” Opeyemi Sowore said.
The trial for her husband Omoyele Sowore is scheduled for early November.
Tech Crunch
Related stories: Activist Sowore pleads not guilty to treason charges in Nigeria
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Video - Nigeria clinic provides free healthcare services to women
It is estimated that one in 13 women in Nigeria die during childbirth, mainly because they cannot afford quality healthcare services. To tackle this, a humanitarian organization in Abuja is providing free healthcare services to women across the country CGTN's Deji Badmus has that story.
Nigeria has a mental health problem
On the outside, the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital Yaba seems tranquil.
But on the inside of this century-old facility - one of only a half-dozen psychiatric centres in Lagos, and the only one run by the federal government of Nigeria - tensions are running high.
At the outpatient clinic, the crowd of people waiting to consult with doctors is so thick that it spills into the hallway.
The workload is so overwhelming that Dr Dapo Adebajum, a psychiatrist rushing to attend to an agitated patient, has slept in the hospital for the past two nights.
In the emergency ward, a patient named Jide languishes in a queue where he has been waiting since 7am.
It is not yet noon at Yaba hospital, but this is business as usual. The hospital saw a 22 percent increase in the number of new patients with different types of mental illnesses in 2018 - along with a 50 percent increase in the number of patients struggling with substance abuse.
One in four Nigerians - some 50 million people - are suffering from some sort of mental illness, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Today - World Mental Health Day - finds the country nowhere near equipped to tackle the problem.
There are only eight neuropsychiatric hospitals in Nigeria. With dire budget and staffing shortfalls prompting doctors to go on strike, leave the country, or quit the medical profession altogether, the prognosis looks as grim for psychiatric care at Yaba hospital as it does for Nigeria's healthcare system as a whole.
Mental health crisis
The seventh-largest country in the world, Nigeria has Africa's highest rate of depression, and ranks fifth in the world in the frequency of suicide, according to WHO. There are less than 150 psychiatrists in this country of 200 million, and WHO estimates that fewer than 10 percent of mentally ill Nigerians have access to the care they need.
The stark difference between Nigeria's need for better psychiatric care - and the resources available - is illustrated by the healthcare gaps at Yaba psychiatric hospital, which had a 2018 budget of 133 million naira ($372,000) - but only 13 million naira ($36,000) or less than 10 percent of that amount released by the federal government.
As a result of financial deficits and other challenges, Yaba hospital lost 25 - roughly half of its resident psychiatrists over the past four years. Some left to find work in other countries. Some went to private hospitals. Others simply quit. The facility now has 33 resident doctors and 22 consultants scrambling to address the needs of the more than 5,000 patients that they treat every year.
Each doctor now tends to 50 to 80 patients per day - including the 535 who fill the inpatient beds, and the 100 or more emergency cases who are rushed to the hospital each week.
Yaba's psychiatric clinic, once open from 9am to 1:30pm, is now open until 5pm so its doctors can try to catch up on their backlog of patients.
Critics say Yaba's shortfalls are not only affecting the quality of its services, but the bottom lines of its patients and their families, too.
A father sitting next to his teenage daughter in the queue of patients tells Al Jazeera that he has spent 1,440 naira ($4, or half the average daily pay in Nigeria) to bring the girl in for that day's treatment. Because the journey - and the more-than-four-hour wait to see a doctor - are both so time-consuming, the exhausted-looking father has taken a full day off work - putting his family at financial risk - to give his daughter the psychiatric care that she needs.
Despite the long wait, the girl - who comes to Yaba about twice a month - will have only a short time to consult with her psychiatrist.
"A patient ought to spend between 25 and 30 minutes with the doctor, but ends up spending between four and five minutes," Yaba psychiatrist Dr. Afeez Enifni tells Al Jazeera.
The father says he is determined to make the most of what the hospital can offer his daughter.
"Health," he insists, "is more important than anything else."
'Bearing the burden'
This past summer, Yaba hospital's Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) held a four-week strike to protest the conditions facing the facility's practitioners and patients.
"We could not continue bearing the moral burden of rendering below-par mental health services to our teeming patient population," ARD said in a statement it issued at the start of the strike.
ARD president Dr Enifni told Al Jazeera that a main goal of the strike - which halted the admission of new patients for a month, required that emergency cases be turned away, and ended in promises to hospital employees that the facility has yet to fulfill - was to spur the hospital to hire more doctors.
Between 2014 and 2018, 40 doctors completed their six-year training at Yaba hospital - then sought employment elsewhere. Some may have left for financial reasons: Yaba doctors can face two-to-three month delays in being paid their wages. And due to a no-work, no-pay policy implemented by the Nigerian government, those who went on strike this summer may not receive the salaries they would have earned during the month that they were protesting.
Enifeni says the workload has become "unbearable" for the 33 psychiatrists and resident doctors who are still working at the hospital - one of a growing number of healthcare facilities in Nigeria where workers are going on strike.
Yaba spokeswoman Philomena Omoike said that though the hospital wrote to the Ministry of Health in June and requested 15 more doctors, that request had yet to be filled.
"The constant leaving of the doctors," she said, "makes recruitment harder."
Physician exodus
Roughly nine out of every ten doctors in Nigeria are seeking to leave the country and find work elsewhere, according to a 2017 poll by the nonprofit organisation Nigeria Health Watch.
The desire for better opportunities - improved pay, facilities, work environments, professional satisfaction, tax breaks and career progression - were among the reasons that psychiatrists and other doctors surveyed said they were hoping to emigrate.
Every week, reports the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom, at least 12 doctors leave Nigeria to seek employment in the UK, where they can earn twice as much as they do at home - and where the number of practicing doctors from Nigeria has more than doubled in the past 13 years.
As Demola Alalade - a doctor who won a psychiatric residency slot in Nigeria but chose to emigrate to the UK - told Al Jazeera: "It's better to be a medical officer in a system that works than a psychiatrist in a system that doesn't."
'No funding from the government'
In part due to the migration of doctors to other countries, Nigeria has an estimated physician-patient ratio of one doctor to every 4,000 to 5,000 patients - six times smaller than the physician-patient ratio (one physician to every 600 doctors) that is recommended by WHO.
Nigeria Health Watch projects that with Nigeria's population on the rise (it is slated to double by 2050, according to the United Nations), the country will need to stop losing doctors and instead start bringing more in - at a rate of 10,605 per year - to keep pace with overall patient demand.
Nigeria's former Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, said in April that the country had "more than enough" doctors.
But practitioners at Yaba - and their patients - disagree.
They say Nigeria needs to start spending the money it has pledged to devote to psychiatry services and other forms of healthcare, too.
Along with 20 other member nations of the African Union, Nigeria signed the 2001 Abuja Declaration that promised to earmark 15 percent of its federal budgets for healthcare.
A 2011 WHO report found Nigeria had made "insufficient progress" towards that target. And by 2018, the country had allocated just 3.95 percent of its budget to funding its Ministry of Health.
In Nigeria's recently proposed 2020 budget, President Muhammadu Buhari allocated just 4.3 percent of the total budget for health.
For the physicians, residents, and patients of Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital Yaba, the money and support for which they have been long been waiting cannot come too soon.
"There has been an increase in patients," says Omoike, "but no funding from the government."
By Socrates Mbamalu
Al Jazeera
Related stories: The new mental illness approach in Nigeria
Video - Nigerian woman tackles mental health stigma
Entrepreneur Emeka Offor wants to combat mental health crisis in Nigeria
But on the inside of this century-old facility - one of only a half-dozen psychiatric centres in Lagos, and the only one run by the federal government of Nigeria - tensions are running high.
At the outpatient clinic, the crowd of people waiting to consult with doctors is so thick that it spills into the hallway.
The workload is so overwhelming that Dr Dapo Adebajum, a psychiatrist rushing to attend to an agitated patient, has slept in the hospital for the past two nights.
In the emergency ward, a patient named Jide languishes in a queue where he has been waiting since 7am.
It is not yet noon at Yaba hospital, but this is business as usual. The hospital saw a 22 percent increase in the number of new patients with different types of mental illnesses in 2018 - along with a 50 percent increase in the number of patients struggling with substance abuse.
One in four Nigerians - some 50 million people - are suffering from some sort of mental illness, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Today - World Mental Health Day - finds the country nowhere near equipped to tackle the problem.
There are only eight neuropsychiatric hospitals in Nigeria. With dire budget and staffing shortfalls prompting doctors to go on strike, leave the country, or quit the medical profession altogether, the prognosis looks as grim for psychiatric care at Yaba hospital as it does for Nigeria's healthcare system as a whole.
Mental health crisis
The seventh-largest country in the world, Nigeria has Africa's highest rate of depression, and ranks fifth in the world in the frequency of suicide, according to WHO. There are less than 150 psychiatrists in this country of 200 million, and WHO estimates that fewer than 10 percent of mentally ill Nigerians have access to the care they need.
The stark difference between Nigeria's need for better psychiatric care - and the resources available - is illustrated by the healthcare gaps at Yaba psychiatric hospital, which had a 2018 budget of 133 million naira ($372,000) - but only 13 million naira ($36,000) or less than 10 percent of that amount released by the federal government.
As a result of financial deficits and other challenges, Yaba hospital lost 25 - roughly half of its resident psychiatrists over the past four years. Some left to find work in other countries. Some went to private hospitals. Others simply quit. The facility now has 33 resident doctors and 22 consultants scrambling to address the needs of the more than 5,000 patients that they treat every year.
Each doctor now tends to 50 to 80 patients per day - including the 535 who fill the inpatient beds, and the 100 or more emergency cases who are rushed to the hospital each week.
Yaba's psychiatric clinic, once open from 9am to 1:30pm, is now open until 5pm so its doctors can try to catch up on their backlog of patients.
Critics say Yaba's shortfalls are not only affecting the quality of its services, but the bottom lines of its patients and their families, too.
A father sitting next to his teenage daughter in the queue of patients tells Al Jazeera that he has spent 1,440 naira ($4, or half the average daily pay in Nigeria) to bring the girl in for that day's treatment. Because the journey - and the more-than-four-hour wait to see a doctor - are both so time-consuming, the exhausted-looking father has taken a full day off work - putting his family at financial risk - to give his daughter the psychiatric care that she needs.
Despite the long wait, the girl - who comes to Yaba about twice a month - will have only a short time to consult with her psychiatrist.
"A patient ought to spend between 25 and 30 minutes with the doctor, but ends up spending between four and five minutes," Yaba psychiatrist Dr. Afeez Enifni tells Al Jazeera.
The father says he is determined to make the most of what the hospital can offer his daughter.
"Health," he insists, "is more important than anything else."
'Bearing the burden'
This past summer, Yaba hospital's Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) held a four-week strike to protest the conditions facing the facility's practitioners and patients.
"We could not continue bearing the moral burden of rendering below-par mental health services to our teeming patient population," ARD said in a statement it issued at the start of the strike.
ARD president Dr Enifni told Al Jazeera that a main goal of the strike - which halted the admission of new patients for a month, required that emergency cases be turned away, and ended in promises to hospital employees that the facility has yet to fulfill - was to spur the hospital to hire more doctors.
Between 2014 and 2018, 40 doctors completed their six-year training at Yaba hospital - then sought employment elsewhere. Some may have left for financial reasons: Yaba doctors can face two-to-three month delays in being paid their wages. And due to a no-work, no-pay policy implemented by the Nigerian government, those who went on strike this summer may not receive the salaries they would have earned during the month that they were protesting.
Enifeni says the workload has become "unbearable" for the 33 psychiatrists and resident doctors who are still working at the hospital - one of a growing number of healthcare facilities in Nigeria where workers are going on strike.
Yaba spokeswoman Philomena Omoike said that though the hospital wrote to the Ministry of Health in June and requested 15 more doctors, that request had yet to be filled.
"The constant leaving of the doctors," she said, "makes recruitment harder."
Physician exodus
Roughly nine out of every ten doctors in Nigeria are seeking to leave the country and find work elsewhere, according to a 2017 poll by the nonprofit organisation Nigeria Health Watch.
The desire for better opportunities - improved pay, facilities, work environments, professional satisfaction, tax breaks and career progression - were among the reasons that psychiatrists and other doctors surveyed said they were hoping to emigrate.
Every week, reports the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom, at least 12 doctors leave Nigeria to seek employment in the UK, where they can earn twice as much as they do at home - and where the number of practicing doctors from Nigeria has more than doubled in the past 13 years.
As Demola Alalade - a doctor who won a psychiatric residency slot in Nigeria but chose to emigrate to the UK - told Al Jazeera: "It's better to be a medical officer in a system that works than a psychiatrist in a system that doesn't."
'No funding from the government'
In part due to the migration of doctors to other countries, Nigeria has an estimated physician-patient ratio of one doctor to every 4,000 to 5,000 patients - six times smaller than the physician-patient ratio (one physician to every 600 doctors) that is recommended by WHO.
Nigeria Health Watch projects that with Nigeria's population on the rise (it is slated to double by 2050, according to the United Nations), the country will need to stop losing doctors and instead start bringing more in - at a rate of 10,605 per year - to keep pace with overall patient demand.
Nigeria's former Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, said in April that the country had "more than enough" doctors.
But practitioners at Yaba - and their patients - disagree.
They say Nigeria needs to start spending the money it has pledged to devote to psychiatry services and other forms of healthcare, too.
Along with 20 other member nations of the African Union, Nigeria signed the 2001 Abuja Declaration that promised to earmark 15 percent of its federal budgets for healthcare.
A 2011 WHO report found Nigeria had made "insufficient progress" towards that target. And by 2018, the country had allocated just 3.95 percent of its budget to funding its Ministry of Health.
In Nigeria's recently proposed 2020 budget, President Muhammadu Buhari allocated just 4.3 percent of the total budget for health.
For the physicians, residents, and patients of Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital Yaba, the money and support for which they have been long been waiting cannot come too soon.
"There has been an increase in patients," says Omoike, "but no funding from the government."
By Socrates Mbamalu
Al Jazeera
Related stories: The new mental illness approach in Nigeria
Video - Nigerian woman tackles mental health stigma
Entrepreneur Emeka Offor wants to combat mental health crisis in Nigeria
Nigeria seeks anti-sexual harassment law after #SexForGrades film
The Nigerian senate has introduced a bill that aims to prevent the sexual harassment of university students.
The proposed legislation follows a BBC investigation that uncovered alleged sexual misconduct by lecturers in Nigeria and Ghana.
The senate's deputy president said he hoped the BBC's investigation would help energise support for the bill.
Senator Ovie Omo-Agege said that he regarded sexual harassment in universities as unacceptable.
If the bill were to become law it would be illegal for lecturers to make any sexual advances towards students.
And under the proposed law, which was read in the senate on Wednesday, teaching staff could face up to 14 years in jail for having sexual relationships with their students.
The anti-sexual harassment bill was originally introduced in 2016 but didn't pass both houses of parliament.
Critics rejected the bill because it did not cover sexual harassment in the workplace and included a defence for consent. The defence for consent has been removed from the latest bill.
Footage of alleged sexual misconduct by academics at the University of Lagos and the University of Ghana was broadcast on Monday in Sex for Grades - a documentary by the BBC's Africa Eye investigative unit.
The documentary prompted outrage over harassment in Nigeria and Ghana and led to the suspension of four lecturers featured in the film. The suspended lecturers have denied the allegations.
What did the film show?
Four lecturers were secretly filmed allegedly propositioning or sexually harassing the BBC's undercover reporters.
Dr Boniface Igbeneghu, a lecturer at the University of Lagos and local pastor, was filmed making inappropriate remarks and requests toward an undercover journalist, who was posing as a prospective student aged 17, and later physically harassing her and asking to kiss her inside his locked office
Dr Igbeneghu then appeared to threaten to tell her mother if she was "disobedient" towards him.
The full hour-long documentary also featured interactions with two lecturers at the University of Ghana.
Both of the men, Professor Ransford Gyampo and Dr Paul Kwame Butakor, have been suspended but denied they were offering "sex for grades" in the undercover exchanges.
BBC
The proposed legislation follows a BBC investigation that uncovered alleged sexual misconduct by lecturers in Nigeria and Ghana.
The senate's deputy president said he hoped the BBC's investigation would help energise support for the bill.
Senator Ovie Omo-Agege said that he regarded sexual harassment in universities as unacceptable.
If the bill were to become law it would be illegal for lecturers to make any sexual advances towards students.
And under the proposed law, which was read in the senate on Wednesday, teaching staff could face up to 14 years in jail for having sexual relationships with their students.
The anti-sexual harassment bill was originally introduced in 2016 but didn't pass both houses of parliament.
Critics rejected the bill because it did not cover sexual harassment in the workplace and included a defence for consent. The defence for consent has been removed from the latest bill.
Footage of alleged sexual misconduct by academics at the University of Lagos and the University of Ghana was broadcast on Monday in Sex for Grades - a documentary by the BBC's Africa Eye investigative unit.
The documentary prompted outrage over harassment in Nigeria and Ghana and led to the suspension of four lecturers featured in the film. The suspended lecturers have denied the allegations.
What did the film show?
Four lecturers were secretly filmed allegedly propositioning or sexually harassing the BBC's undercover reporters.
Dr Boniface Igbeneghu, a lecturer at the University of Lagos and local pastor, was filmed making inappropriate remarks and requests toward an undercover journalist, who was posing as a prospective student aged 17, and later physically harassing her and asking to kiss her inside his locked office
Dr Igbeneghu then appeared to threaten to tell her mother if she was "disobedient" towards him.
The full hour-long documentary also featured interactions with two lecturers at the University of Ghana.
Both of the men, Professor Ransford Gyampo and Dr Paul Kwame Butakor, have been suspended but denied they were offering "sex for grades" in the undercover exchanges.
BBC
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Video - Blogger/Photojournalist defies odds by chasing his dreams with one arm
About 19 million Nigerians live with some form of disability - majority of them having very significant difficulties in carrying on with their daily lives. But Blogger and Photojournalist Masara Kim has gone against all odds to be one of the best in his field.
Video - Parents in Nigeria adopt innovative options to discipline their children
The question of whether spanking a child translates to discipline or abuse has been dominating conversations around Africa. Nigeria is no exception. In this next report, CGTN's Kelechi Emakalam examines how Nigerian parents are devising other means of disciplining their children without using the cane.
Pirate activites drop in Nigeria
Recent records had shown drop in maritime crime and piracy in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea, head of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) said here Tuesday.
Addressing the ongoing Global Maritime Security Conference holding in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, Dakuku Peterside, NIMASA's director-general, said there have been improvement through different initiatives to tackle maritime insecurity.
According to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), 73 percent of all sea kidnapping and 92 percent of hostage-takings occur in the Gulf of Guinea off Nigeria, Guinea, Togo, Benin and Cameroon.
Recently, the organization has noted "a welcome and marked decrease" in attacks in the region due to an increase in Nigerian Navy patrols.
Twenty-one incidents have been recorded around Nigeria as at July this year, compared to 31 in the same period of 2018, said Peterside.
The Nigerian official however reiterated the need for more partnership and collaboration between relevant stakeholders to tackle the maritime insecurity menace in the region.
Peterside told his audience that safe and secured waterways will boost maritime transportation in Nigeria and in the continent.
He said member states in the region had agreed to deal with the issue of insecurity of waterways from its roots and had developed initiatives to ensure this.
Xinhua
Related stories: Nigeria loses $1.5bn monthly to sea pirates and fuel fraud
Video - Nigerian government extends anti-piracy operation by 3 months
Video - Piracy in Nigeria
Addressing the ongoing Global Maritime Security Conference holding in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, Dakuku Peterside, NIMASA's director-general, said there have been improvement through different initiatives to tackle maritime insecurity.
According to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), 73 percent of all sea kidnapping and 92 percent of hostage-takings occur in the Gulf of Guinea off Nigeria, Guinea, Togo, Benin and Cameroon.
Recently, the organization has noted "a welcome and marked decrease" in attacks in the region due to an increase in Nigerian Navy patrols.
Twenty-one incidents have been recorded around Nigeria as at July this year, compared to 31 in the same period of 2018, said Peterside.
The Nigerian official however reiterated the need for more partnership and collaboration between relevant stakeholders to tackle the maritime insecurity menace in the region.
Peterside told his audience that safe and secured waterways will boost maritime transportation in Nigeria and in the continent.
He said member states in the region had agreed to deal with the issue of insecurity of waterways from its roots and had developed initiatives to ensure this.
Xinhua
Related stories: Nigeria loses $1.5bn monthly to sea pirates and fuel fraud
Video - Nigerian government extends anti-piracy operation by 3 months
Video - Piracy in Nigeria
Nigeria's $875 million case against JPMorgan alllowed to proceed
An $875 million Nigerian government lawsuit against U.S. bank JPMorgan is clear to move forward after a London-based appeals court on Tuesday rejected the bank’s bid to have the case dismissed.
The bank had asked the court to quash the Nigerian government’s case, arguing that it had no prospect of success. All three justices at the Court of Appeal in London rejected JPMorgan’s argument in a ruling.
“I have formed no view as to the overall merits of the (government’s) claim but there is nothing in the terms of the depository agreement which entitles (JP) Morgan Chase to bring the proceedings to an end at this stage,” Lady Justice Rose wrote in the decision.
Tuesday’s decision upheld a February ruling from a lower court.
Nigeria is suing JPMorgan for more than $875 million, accusing it of negligence in transferring funds from a disputed 2011 oilfield deal to a company controlled by the country’s former oil minister.
The bank declined to comment on Tuesday's ruling. It has said it considers the allegations against it "unsubstantiated and without merit", and that it would fight the case in court.
A spokesman for Nigeria’s attorney general did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The case is one of several revolving around a $1.3 billion payment from oil companies Shell (RDSa.L) and Eni (ENI.MI) to secure offshore oilfield OPL 245.
The main trial related to OPL 245 is being held in Milan.
JPMorgan, acting under the instruction of previous Nigerian government officials, transferred money from those payments from an escrow account into accounts controlled by the previous operator of the block, Malabu Oil and Gas, itself controlled by former oil minister Dan Etete.
JPMorgan argued in its effort to dismiss the case that the approvals from those government officials was sufficient but the Nigerian government alleges that the bank’s transfers violated the duty of care owed to the government as a client.
Nigeria has also filed a $1.1 billion lawsuit in London against Shell and Eni over the deal.
Shell, Eni and their executives, have denied any wrongdoing. Etete, who was convicted of money laundering in France in 2007, has also denied charges against him.
The oilfield’s original license was awarded to Malabu in 1998, and is estimated to hold more than 9 billion barrels of oil, but has yet to enter production.
Reuters
The bank had asked the court to quash the Nigerian government’s case, arguing that it had no prospect of success. All three justices at the Court of Appeal in London rejected JPMorgan’s argument in a ruling.
“I have formed no view as to the overall merits of the (government’s) claim but there is nothing in the terms of the depository agreement which entitles (JP) Morgan Chase to bring the proceedings to an end at this stage,” Lady Justice Rose wrote in the decision.
Tuesday’s decision upheld a February ruling from a lower court.
Nigeria is suing JPMorgan for more than $875 million, accusing it of negligence in transferring funds from a disputed 2011 oilfield deal to a company controlled by the country’s former oil minister.
The bank declined to comment on Tuesday's ruling. It has said it considers the allegations against it "unsubstantiated and without merit", and that it would fight the case in court.
A spokesman for Nigeria’s attorney general did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The case is one of several revolving around a $1.3 billion payment from oil companies Shell (RDSa.L) and Eni (ENI.MI) to secure offshore oilfield OPL 245.
The main trial related to OPL 245 is being held in Milan.
JPMorgan, acting under the instruction of previous Nigerian government officials, transferred money from those payments from an escrow account into accounts controlled by the previous operator of the block, Malabu Oil and Gas, itself controlled by former oil minister Dan Etete.
JPMorgan argued in its effort to dismiss the case that the approvals from those government officials was sufficient but the Nigerian government alleges that the bank’s transfers violated the duty of care owed to the government as a client.
Nigeria has also filed a $1.1 billion lawsuit in London against Shell and Eni over the deal.
Shell, Eni and their executives, have denied any wrongdoing. Etete, who was convicted of money laundering in France in 2007, has also denied charges against him.
The oilfield’s original license was awarded to Malabu in 1998, and is estimated to hold more than 9 billion barrels of oil, but has yet to enter production.
Reuters
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Video - Solar energy gradually replacing diesel generators in Nigeria
With poor electricity supply from the national grid in Nigeria, most businesses and households in the country rely on generators for power. But as people tire of the noise and pollution, many are now turning to solar energy - an alternative that is cleaner, quieter and cheaper in the long run.
Related story: Nigeria runs on generators and nine hours of power a day
Monday, October 7, 2019
Cross-cultural romantic relationships are occasionally marked by moments of misunderstanding, apprehension and soul searching. But they are leavened by commitment, love and, crucially, humour. Those experiences form the bedrock of Bob Hearts Abishola, a new US comedy series airing on CBS that portrays a blossoming romance between an American man and a Nigerian immigrant woman. To observers, Bob (Billy Gardell) has it good – he has a prosperous business in Detroit manufacturing compression socks, owns his home and drives a great car. But his loneliness and the stress of running a company takes a toll and lands him in hospital with a heart scare. He is drawn to Abishola (Folake Olowofoyeku), a nurse and single mother who helps him get back to full health. He sets out to convince Abishola to give him a chance. But they soon find the path of courtship is long and winding as they face questions and well-meaning interference from family and friends. On Monday’s show we’ll meet three cast members and hear what they learned from making a sitcom that places the immigrant experience at the heart of the story.
Video - A teenager's struggle for survival in tough northern Nigeria
CGTN's Kelechi Emekalam highlights the life of a young Nigerian teenager who is defying the odds and pushing hard to make headway in life. Northern Nigeria, is considered the toughest place to survive in the west African nation.
Friday, October 4, 2019
Former Nigeria striker Isaac Promise dies aged 31
Promise was captain of the Nigeria side that won a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
He spent much of his career in Turkey, with Trabzonspor among his former clubs, and also had a brief spell in Saudi Arabia with Al-Ahli.
Former West Ham defender Anton Ferdinand was among those to pay tribute.
"I'm in shock," he wrote on Instagram. "You were my room mate at Antalyaspor. RIP Isaac Promise. Rest well bro my prayers are with your family and friends at this time."
BBC
Facebook removes fake accounts from Nigeria
Facebook has removed several pages, groups and accounts on its platforms from the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia, citing "coordinated inauthentic behaviour" aimed at misleading social media users.
A total of 443 Facebook accounts, 200 pages and 76 groups, as well as 125 Instagram accounts, were removed, the social media platform said on Thursday.
They were traced to three separate and "unconnected" operations, one of which was operating in three countries, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Nigeria; and two others in Indonesia and Egypt, to spread misleading posts and news articles.
Facebook, which owns one-time rivals Instagram and WhatsApp, said the accounts were engaged in spreading content on topics like UAE's activity in Yemen, the Iran nuclear deal and criticism of Qatar, Turkey and Iran.
Those operations created "networks of accounts to mislead others about who they were, and what they were doing," Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity policy said in the statement.
In all, the accounts on Facebook and Instagram commanded an estimated 7.5 million followers.
The company added that it is taking down the accounts "based on their behaviour, not the content they posted".
"In each of these cases, the people behind this activity coordinated with one another and used fake accounts to misrepresent themselves."
Facebook defines coordinated inauthentic behaviour as "when groups of pages or people work together to mislead others about who they are or what they are doing."
One account called USA Thoughts posted false information about Qatar developing a "Hate App".
In Indonesia, accounts involved in "domestic-focused" issues were accused of spreading news about the deadly protests in the West Papua region.
"Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our investigation found links to an Indonesia media firm InsightID."
As much as $300,000 was reportedly spent on Facebook ads paid in the Indonesian currency, rupiah.
Al Jazeera was not immediately able to contact InsightID.
During the April 2019 national elections, President Joko Widodo, who was seeking re-election, was also targeted with disinformation on social media, with some accusing him of being a communist and an underground Christian.
Sluggish response
The social media giant has recently cracked down on such accounts after its founder Mark Zuckerberg came under fire in the last few years for sluggishness in developing tools to combat "extremist" content and propaganda operations.
"We are making progress rooting out this abuse, but as we’ve said before, it’s an ongoing challenge," the statement on Thursday said.
Earlier this year, Facebook removed accounts from Iraq, Ukraine, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Thailand, Honduras and Israel.
Facebook is also making attempts to prevent online abuses and spread of misinformation, including in political election campaigns.
In March, it removed 200 pages, groups and accounts linked to the former social media manager of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for misleading people.
The accounts and posts in question posted about local news, elections and alleged misconduct by political candidates opposed to the Duterte administration.
Facebook said the accounts administrators tried to hide their identity but were linked to a network organised by Duterte's 2016 campaign operative.
The spread of fake news and propaganda, however, is not limited to individuals and private companies.
According to a study conducted by the University of Oxford and published in late September, a "handful of sophisticated state actors" are using social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to influence a global audience.
It listed China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela for using Facebook and Twitter for "foreign influence operations".
The report said that most recently, China has been "aggressively using" Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in a "global disinformation" campaign related to the ongoing protests in Hong Kong.
Al Jazeera
A total of 443 Facebook accounts, 200 pages and 76 groups, as well as 125 Instagram accounts, were removed, the social media platform said on Thursday.
They were traced to three separate and "unconnected" operations, one of which was operating in three countries, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Nigeria; and two others in Indonesia and Egypt, to spread misleading posts and news articles.
Facebook, which owns one-time rivals Instagram and WhatsApp, said the accounts were engaged in spreading content on topics like UAE's activity in Yemen, the Iran nuclear deal and criticism of Qatar, Turkey and Iran.
Those operations created "networks of accounts to mislead others about who they were, and what they were doing," Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity policy said in the statement.
In all, the accounts on Facebook and Instagram commanded an estimated 7.5 million followers.
The company added that it is taking down the accounts "based on their behaviour, not the content they posted".
"In each of these cases, the people behind this activity coordinated with one another and used fake accounts to misrepresent themselves."
Facebook defines coordinated inauthentic behaviour as "when groups of pages or people work together to mislead others about who they are or what they are doing."
One account called USA Thoughts posted false information about Qatar developing a "Hate App".
In Indonesia, accounts involved in "domestic-focused" issues were accused of spreading news about the deadly protests in the West Papua region.
"Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our investigation found links to an Indonesia media firm InsightID."
As much as $300,000 was reportedly spent on Facebook ads paid in the Indonesian currency, rupiah.
Al Jazeera was not immediately able to contact InsightID.
During the April 2019 national elections, President Joko Widodo, who was seeking re-election, was also targeted with disinformation on social media, with some accusing him of being a communist and an underground Christian.
Sluggish response
The social media giant has recently cracked down on such accounts after its founder Mark Zuckerberg came under fire in the last few years for sluggishness in developing tools to combat "extremist" content and propaganda operations.
"We are making progress rooting out this abuse, but as we’ve said before, it’s an ongoing challenge," the statement on Thursday said.
Earlier this year, Facebook removed accounts from Iraq, Ukraine, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Thailand, Honduras and Israel.
Facebook is also making attempts to prevent online abuses and spread of misinformation, including in political election campaigns.
In March, it removed 200 pages, groups and accounts linked to the former social media manager of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for misleading people.
The accounts and posts in question posted about local news, elections and alleged misconduct by political candidates opposed to the Duterte administration.
Facebook said the accounts administrators tried to hide their identity but were linked to a network organised by Duterte's 2016 campaign operative.
The spread of fake news and propaganda, however, is not limited to individuals and private companies.
According to a study conducted by the University of Oxford and published in late September, a "handful of sophisticated state actors" are using social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to influence a global audience.
It listed China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela for using Facebook and Twitter for "foreign influence operations".
The report said that most recently, China has been "aggressively using" Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in a "global disinformation" campaign related to the ongoing protests in Hong Kong.
Al Jazeera
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